ABSTRACT
The first report of the effect of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) was made by Wood in 1902 when he noticed the absence of light in narrow spectral bands from a diffraction grating. SPR spectroscopy has now been applied to a number of analytical problems due to its high sensitivity to variations in the electronic nature of a surface. For SPR measurements in a laboratory setting where the geometry of the optical system can be conveniently constructed, the Kretschmann configuration is optimum due to the narrow resonances measured. An optical-fiber-based SPR sensor is normally made from a single fiber that has its cladding etched down to the optical core of the fiber over a known section of length. This chapter develops the background mathematics that predicts SPR in a planar geometry. These models were then expanded to a single-ended cylindrical geometry that can be made into a practical single-ended fiber-optic probe.
